Even before the ink on the contract had a chance to dry, the gloom and doom was palpable.

Wither Hockey Night in Canada … it’s been an overriding theme since the day it was announced that the National Hockey League had handed over all national media rights to its product to Rogers Communications for the next 12 years. Included in that agreement is control over the venerable tradition that is Hockey Night in Canada. While the CBC will still show games on Saturday nights — just as they have since 1952 — it’ll be Rogers calling the shots in terms of how the broadcasts are produced (and having the opportunity to spread the HNIC brand across other TV entities such as Sportsnet and City).

Much ink and words have been expended already about how far Rogers plans to go to preserve the Hockey Night tradition (and no, this isn’t going to be another ‘save Don Cherry‘ yarn. Besides, the man can take of himself very well, thank you. Have a look below if you don’t believe me).

Rather, this space today is being devoted to a warm and fuzzy little thing called Hockey Day in Canada. Heading into its 14th run, this “celebration of the game” was the brainchild of former Hockey Night executive producer John Shannon (ironically, now a Rogers employee with Sportsnet, for whom he’s a studio analyst). The idea was to have all six Canadian teams square off in a tripleheader of homebrew games, with the day also filled with grassroots features about hockey. It’s a concept that Canadian communities from coast to coast embraced right from the get go, many of whom plan puck celebrations around the day (and if it happens to get your town on TV, all the better).

And really, why wouldn’t this idea be a hit? Hockey is our national passion, after all.

It’s a vital part of the fabric of our nation.

If ever there was a guaranteed winner of an idea, this was it. Towns and villages across Canada are thrilled when they’re chosen to play the host’s role — Hockey Day has been held everywhere from Winkler, Man., to Shaunavon, Sask., to Windsor, N.S., Stratford, Ont., and Campbellton, N.B. — and all sorts of places in between (the show has gone as far north as Iqaluit in Nunavut).

Lloydminster, Alta./Sask., preparing for 14th Hockey Day in Canada, which will celebrate community on Jan. 18. http://t.co/Hkrr6Zhb3R#nhl

The “Border City” of Lloydminster, which straddles the Saskatchewan/Alberta border, gets its turn in the spotlight on Jan. 18. Cherry and Ron MacLean will be there. So will plenty of other hockey celebrities. And for an entire day, the eyes and ears of a country focus on this ‘burg in the Prairies.

(the NHL fare that day: Rangers-Senators, Oilers-Jets, Canadiens-Leafs and Flames-Canucks).

Few things you’ll see on television are as quintessentially Canadian as this. And, it says here, it’s a tradition Rogers needs to preserve when it gets down to figuring out the particulars of how they’re going to handle hockey going forward. I’d even go so far as to suggest CBC’s crews should be the ones to keep their fingers on the pulse of the grassroots side of this initiative. They know the drill, after all.

Of course, nobody would know that better than Scott Moore, Rogers Media’s president of broadcasting and a former head of CBC Sports. He’s had the task of nurturing Shannon’s creation and I’d like to think he’ll see the value of keeping Hockey Day alive. On the CBC, right where it belongs.